Writing yesterday’s post got me thinking about another tool that I find useful for food storage: white plastic lids for canning jars. I love these lids. For one thing, they are much more convenient for capping jars than the two-part canning lids. I know that that system is necessary for canning, but I mostly use my glass jars to store non-canned foods so I don’t like having to deal with the two-part lids.
Secondly, unlike most two-part canning lids, these white plastic lids do not contain BPA. I go out of my way to avoid BPA in the foods that we buy so it makes no sense to me to store my foods in something that may leech BPA. If the food doesn’t touch the lid you’re probably fine, but my food often does come into contact with the lid (through shaking or the like) so I feel more comfortable capping my jars with these lids.
The other nifty thing about these lids is that you can write on them using a dry erase marker. The ink goes on clearly and then can easily be removed with soap and water. (Or you can just wipe it off with your finger if you don’t mind smudging.)
I find the write-on surface to be very handy. I like to label my water kefir to help me remember when to start a new batch. I also write on the lids when storing my milk kefir grains in the fridge and when I make a batch of coconut water kefir. Milk kefir grains stored in milk look a lot like a jar of plain milk or kefir and I don’t want them to get accidently ground up in a smoothie. I also once confused coconut water kefir for broth and I’d rather not make that unpleasant mistake again.
Since the dry erase ink will come off if you touch it a lot, this method is best for short-term use. If I want to label something long-term I always use my blue tape labels.
(By the way, I don’t recommend using a dry erase marker on just any jar lid. I once labeled one of my gallon jar lids with a dry erase marker without thinking about the fact that it’s a different surface than the white canning jar lids. The ink won’t wash off so that lid is now labeled “Thur” for the foreseeable future. Ah well. )
I’ve seen these lids for sale at hardware stores and through Amazon, but the best price I’ve seen for them is through Azure.
What do you like to use to cap your glass jars? And am I the only one who has trouble storing all those jars? Sometimes I feel like I need a whole pantry just for my jars.
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